Motorized Sensors Waiting for Release

A fleet of motorized "drifters" sit waiting for release into San Francisco Bay. The devices, created by the Floating Sensor Network project at the University of California, Berkeley, are communication-enabled and integrate numerous sensors, including global positioning system, temperature and salinity. The drifter are used to help track the movement of water, salinity and other contaminants in complex networks of channels like deltas or estuaries in the event of an emergency like a levee failure, flood or contaminant spill. Researchers say they will also help with management efforts such as maintaining the freshwater channel in northern California's Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. [Research supported by National Science Foundation grant CNS 09-31348, "Collaborative Research: Physical Modeling and Software Synthesis for Self-reconfigurable Sensors in River Environments"] (Date of Image: 2010)
Credit: Jonathan Beard